This is an Exploratory Analysis of the Global Human Development datasets downloaded from http://hdr.undp.org/en.
Following datasets were used in the analysis:
– HDI: Human Development Index and its components: The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living.
– GII: Gender Inequality Index: expose differences in the distribution of achievements between women and men. It measures the human development costs of gender inequality, thus the higher the GII value the more disparities between females and males. The GII values vary tremendously across countries, they range from 2.1 percent to 73.3 percent.
– MPI: Multidimensional Poverty Index: This index is a measure of overlapping deprivations suffered by people at the same time. It identifies deprivations across the same three dimensions as the HDI.
Following components of HDI were also analyzed:
– GNI: Gross National Income: The standard of living dimension is measured by gross national income per capita.
– MSY: Mean Schooling Year: The education component of the HDI is measured by mean of years of schooling for adults
– LE: Life expectance in years: The health dimension is assessed by life expectancy at birth component of the HDI
Indices for various countries and years are not available. Missing data is beging ignored in this analysis.
We see that Ausralia had the highetst HDI from 1980 to 1990. Norway overtook Australia in terms of HDI in 2000 and has maintatined its top spot.
The latest data is that of year 2013 and the earliest is of 1980. The lowest ever HDI was recorded as 0.146 for Liberia in 2003. The highest one was for Norway in 2013. The median HDI over the course of years is 0.64
Minimum GII to be have been recorded is 0.021 for Slovenia for 2013. The highest was 0.885 for Yemen in 1995. Median GII is 0.446. We notice that countries with the hightest GNI are not the ones with the max HDI.
Geospatial variation of HDI show that the America , western countries in European Union, Australia and New Zealand have higher HDI while Africa has nations with the lowest HDIs.
Variation of HDI and its components with Time shows that the average HDI of nations has constantly been increasing since 1980. Av. GNI decreased from 1983 to 1994 before gradually increasing till 2008 after which it again started declining. Mean Year of Schooling and average life expectancy has increased since 1980
The Heat Map below shows that standing of nations as per their HDI and GII. Norway has the highest HDI while Niger is lowest. Yemen stands out for its high GII i.e gender inequality. Qatar seems to fare better in terms of HDI but has poor GII in contrast.
The scatter plot between HDI, GII and GNI shows that there is clear relation between HDI and GII. nations have poor human development records have higher gender based inequality. These are also the nations that have poor GNI (Gross national Income). HDI is not dependent on GNI. Some nations have higher GNI still pose poorly on HDI such as Qatar.
The scatterplot showing the variation of HDI with its components. The nations with high HDI might not have the hightest GNI but they score good on life expectancy and education.
Scatter plot of various of Dimensions of Multi Dimensional Poverty Index shows that very nations showing high Multi Dimensional Poverty is due to poor living conditions of people there. Health and Education are not the primary contributors. Whereas for nations faring well on MPI the primary contributors are educaton and Health.
The time series hows that Cambodia has had the highest rate of (130%) improvement in HDI followed by Afghanistan (108%)
